The present invention relates to tools for terminating conductors and more particularly to a portable tool for simultaneously terminating a plurality of conductors in a mass termination connector.
Mass termination connectors, which function to remove insulation from and electrically terminate a plurality of conductors in response to a single stroke of an insertion tool, are coming into increasing commercial prominence because of their great savings of tedious manual operations compared with the previous wiring method of stripping the insulation from the end of each individual conductor, placing a terminal on each bared conductor end and crimping the respective terminals on the respective conductors. A mass termination connector, an example of which is fully disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,442, includes a housing having a front wall and a back wall joined by a plurality of spaced barrier walls defining an array of cavities for holding a plurality of individual metallic terminal elements. Aligned openings in the front and back walls extend from the wire-receiving face of the housing to provide entrances to the various cavities so that conductors positioned over the cavities can be moved laterally of their axes to terminate them in the terminal elements.
Various types of tools have been proposed for inserting the conductors into the mass termination connectors. The simplest type is of the hand variety having an enlarged head, no moving parts and which can terminate only one wire at a time. Pneumatic gun-type tools have been suggested which hold and index the connector to terminate one wire at a time. Such tools are not well suited for use with conductors positioned on a wiring layout board because of their modest insertion rates or because the conductors must be lifted from the board and positioned in the tool.
Portable tools have also been suggested for use with connector holders disposed on a wiring layout board at locations corresponding to the desired ends of the wiring harness to be formed. Such tools function to sever the excess portions of the conductors extending from the connector as they terminate all the conductors simultaneously. A common shortcoming of such tools is that they fail to provide a positive indication that the tool has fully terminated the wires in the connector. Thus if the operator is in a particular hurry or is inattentive, he or she may fail to properly operate the tool to complete the termination. As the tool unlocks from the holder in the same manner whether or not the termination has been completed, the operator has no indication that a particular termination may be incomplete. In the case of a pneumatic tool, the operator could "tickle" the trigger rather than holding it sufficiently long to complete the termination. These prior art tools also require that after termination the tool must be unlocked from the connector holder before removal of the tool. Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,845,535 and 4,242,792.